We’re living in strange times, eh? Catch that Canadian accent? When I tried to rent a house in Victoria for us to stay in for the month of August, I got the cold shoulder from several owners because they perceived that I was American by my phone number. One even found me on Facebook and saw that I live in Berkeley. Rules here are that only travel within the province is allowed so unless I could prove we were BC residents, folks did not want to rent to us.
John decided he should get a BC phone number/mobile phone. In trying to do that, he was told that he couldn’t pay for the phone with a US credit card so he ordered a Canadian credit card. And so it goes…
We read in the paper that people with US license plates were getting harassed (cars keyed and so forth – so much for those “nice” Canadians) so John re-insured his truck and got plates for it so we could stop driving my old Prius with US plates and switch to the “Canadian” Ford F-150. He’s in the process of re-plating the Prius so it will also be a Canadian car.
In the end, I succeeded in renting a house by sending a scan of John’s BC driver’s license to the owner along with the explanation of our dual-nationality relationship, John’s house address here in Vernon, and the fact that I’d applied for landed immigrant status. This was acceptable to the homeowner as proof we are BC residents and now, we have a place to stay in Victoria starting on 8/1. I continue to practice my ‘eh’s’.
My friend Marianne texted me the following, which pretty much says it all.
We’ve been in quarantine since we arrived two weeks ago. While John’s negative test on July 3rd took him off the watch list of BC public health, they are still calling me every 2 days to see if I’m ok even though I also had a negative test result. While being checked in on so regularly is slightly creepy, mostly it highlights the huge difference between what’s happening here versus in California. By this Saturday, I will have quarantined for 18 days and will be free to resume normal life.
Other great news is that everyone John had any contact with before or since his positive result on 6/24 who has been tested and received their results have been negative.
Regarding the extreme measures that Canada has taken to tamp down the virus, I read in the Globe and Mail that many Canadian public health experts are now calling on the government to let up on such strict measures. They acknowledge that the shutdown has had greater costs for some populations such as women, working parents, lower income folks, and people of color so the feeling is that the country should jettison the goal of stamping the virus out completely and should instead seek a balance. Clearly, the US is a big red flag about going too far in the other direction but the conversation here is nuanced and based on reasonable tradeoffs. Such a contrast!
While there is a slight psychological toll knowing that I’m “in quarantine,” it’s really not that hard to stay busy and is made easier by having a nice house to spend our time in. My activities have placed me in the following roles during these couple weeks:
Super-Planner – Finding places to rent for our upcoming travels around BC has, as I mentioned above, taken some doing and we’ve got more to plan for. Also, since we can’t go to the grocery store, I’ve had to order groceries online for delivery which requires weekly meal planning. John insisted I choose a 7 – 9am delivery slot on Saturday so, as I figured would happen, the delivery came right at 7am and we slept through it so they had to come back later in the morning when we were up.
We’re cooking 4 or 5 dinners per week (at least 2 each), ordering takeout 2 nights, and having leftovers one night. Kelsey inspired me when she and Garet stayed with us earlier this year in Berkeley so now I post our weekly meal plan on the refrigerator just as she did when she was living with us. Like daughter, like mother!
Chef – As many of you know, John is more of a natural cook than I but I’m doing my part and trying to hone my vegetarian cooking skills. Last night, I made a rather tasty dinner of Fried Lima Beans with Feta, Sorrel, and Sumac (from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty) and Zucchini Fritters (from Vegetables, Unleashed, a cookbook recommended by my friend Barbara), pictured below.
Friend & Communicator – I really miss getting to see my friends and family face-to-face but I’m connecting in various ways, through this blog, phone calls, text messages, and emails. This takes time but in a good way. I love my long phone chats with friends and if I can keep it up, I may be in touch with more people regularly than I am at home.
It’s been fascinating to hear how the virus has had an effect on what friends are doing in their lives. It’s resulted in Angela buying an e-bike, Julie C planning to redo her backyard, and Janet heading to Michigan for much longer than her usual summer visit and getting a new puppy. And then, of course, there’s us hanging out here in British Columbia.
Lifelong Learner – I mentioned in my last blog that I’m trying to read, watch, and listen my way to greater awareness around race and bias. Last night, we watched the 2016 movie 13th, which I’d been avoiding figuring that it would be too upsetting (more white fragility, I’m afraid). It was quite upsetting but so well done and eye opening – so American that the privatization of criminal justice has given corporations such an incentive to imprison (or surveille) as many people as possible and so they lobby accordingly. If you haven’t seen it (and most of you probably have), I highly recommend it. Some of you have sent me additional media resources, which I greatly appreciate. Keep ‘em coming…
Also, I joined a discussion group through WakeUpBayArea “for white or white-identified people with the goal becoming an anti-racist” that starts tomorrow and will meet for two-hours every other week for 12-weeks. Our homework for the first session is to read White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, which I’ve finished, and So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Ulou. I hope talking with others about this topic will add to my increased awareness in a way that simply reading or watching on my own might not. It is moderated by two sisters in Oakland.
Dog Walker – I haven’t been able to do my usual workouts for quite awhile because I learned on the day we left Berkeley that the reason my shoulder was still hurting after a bad fall on my mountain bike four weeks prior is that I’d fractured it. Therefore, no lifting, yoga, or circuit training for a couple months. Luckily, I like to walk and Moose needs his exercise.
Technically, we’re not even supposed to leave the house but our walks with Moose are quite safe since we are going to extra remote places and don’t run into anyone, and of course we’ve both tested negative. We go on gorgeous, long walks every day away from humanity. I’ll wait until my next blog to share outdoor photos as I don’t want to supply any proof that we have left the house (can’t be too careful). Well, just one.
Consultant – My consulting work with Santa Clara county’s Equal Opportunity Department’s Conflict Resolution group continues and has become even more topical since the Floyd killing. They have been getting daily requests for their Implicit Bias training from all sorts of departments within the county government (22,000 employees and a budget of $7B) so I am happy to be working with a team that’s contributing something so important at this moment in time. My work is to help them find ways to scale their conflict resolution services within the county, including putting assessments in place to show that their sessions and trainings change attitudes, behaviors, and emotional states such as empathy, compassion, or anger. As you can imagine, the county is extremely focused on COVID, both its health and budget implications, so I’m lucky that my contract is funded through October.
Time to take Moose for a walk. Thanks for reading. I’ll be back next week and OUT OF QUARANTINE!